Category Archives: Music

Seriously, you guys are going to be so sick of me in no time at all. Then again, you can filter it out right?

I’m back on a bit of a #NerdyJourney – that’s right, it’s so darn nerdy that I’ve even gone so far as to create a hashtag for it on Twitter… Don’t ask me why, because I really couldn’t explain it to you, but at least this time I’m not going to bore you with Valerieopolis, which I haven’t even looked at in days. But before we get to all my geeky Minecraft-ing, I really want to share something else with you first.

Maybe it’s that I’m not being critical enough or maybe it’s that I’m simply accepting what I create easier, I uploaded yet ANOTHER YouTube video! Are you excited? I am. It’s been forever and a day since I uploaded a YouTube video and now I’ve uploaded two in the last month. However, I’ve changed all my old videos so that they have a little intro and ending to them and I updated my channel page so everything is all brand new over there.

If you haven’t caught the hint yet, go check it out! Like it, subscribe to it, share it with all your friends – but mostly, let me know what you think! Oh yeah, and here’s the video. Doing a cover of The White Stripes “Fell in Love With a Girl” (and yes, I know what you’re thinking, eventually I willdo an original song – I promise!)

So now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, I’ll carry onto all the other stuff that I did today. Yes, it was Minecraft, but it was still stuff. As I said before, I’ve kind of given up on my other #NerdyJourney world, Valerieopolis. Just click the link if you want to learn more… I’m still doing it and it still exists, it just hasn’t really gone anywhere. Every time I get on it, little things like fill in a block here or there, but nothing that’s changing the way it looks. But The Boyfriend got me very interested in redstone recently and taught me how to do a few things that I didn’t know how to do before and so one night after we experimented with it together…

I created a new creative world for me to go nutty with. It’s kind of taken on a life of it’s own. I didn’t originally go into it with any real plans or concept, but it’s managed to turn into a Lava/Water metropolis. I mean, the sidewalk pretty much sums it up:

The central focus of this world, which I still haven’t named (so bear with me), is the Town Hall – although I guess it would be more appropriate to call it a City Hall, since that’s more what we’re working with. Here’s a couple of shots of what it looks like:

Town Hall – Ground Level

Town Hall

Town Hall Sitting Area

Aerial View of Town Hall

1st Level from Entrance

1st Level – Town Hall – Water Fountain

1st Level – Town Hall – Lava Fountain

3rd Level – Town Hall

Open Security Gate – Parking Lot – Town Hall

Closed Security Gate – Parking Lot – Town Hall

There’s a couple more buildings, which you can see by checking out my Random Minecraft album on Facebook, but really quickly, I want to show you my Fire Truck. It took forever and a day to figure out how to make it and then I had everyone telling me how I should make it, but of course, I didn’t like the way that they wanted it. So this is essentially what we all came up with. We’ve seen a few tutorials that were really good but I hadn’t watched any of them recently, so couldn’t remember a single thing. However, I do think my dispenser idea is awesome!

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So that’s what I’ve been up to lately… Spent the day after I was incredibly sick on Minecraft and spend the night after working on YouTube. Tomorrow, I have a butt load of things to do – I’m not even slightly looking forward to it. But it’s gotta get done.

We’ve promised to take Mom’s dog to the dog park with the kids, we’ve got a whole bunch of cleaning that needs to be done by 3 PM on Monday, plus we still have to get some grocery shopping done before we burn through the rest of this money! And just when we feel like it’s all going to be over, school starts again and the week gets crazy. Now, as long as I can remember to do some of the more minor things that I really want to do (like carry my camera with me, because I’m missing so many great picture opportunities or get a cheese grater, because I’m desperately craving grated cheese on my food), I’ll be happy as a clam.

For some reason lately, I’ve been more and more into watching YouTube videos and recently, I came across this cover and I cannot stop listening to it. I’ve heard multiple covers of this song and the original, but this one just keeps sticking with. I want my voice and guitar playing to sound like this!!!

It’s been quite a long while, but I finally posted a video to YouTube… It’s not the best that I’ve ever done, but I was so desperate to post something that I no longer cared if it was perfect or still needed work. So freaking much has changed when it comes to uploading videos on there since I last did it, that the longest part of the whole thing for me was re-acquainting myself with the whole thing. Uploading videos on YouTube is so much cooler now than it was the last time I did it. You’re dying to know what I put up, aren’t you? Okay… I’ll show you!

Like the description of the video says, I haven’t been playing the electric keyboards that long and I am 100% teaching myself, so it’s not the best that it can be but it’s the best that I can do at the moment. One day, I will get a guitar and you won’t hear me complain anymore 😉

In other news, I spent the entire day on Minecraft, even though I had absolutely not intended to. And the second I got off, The Boyfriend got on. But, I am creating something that I keep starting and then re-starting and then re-starting some more and finally for the first time since this journey has started, I’m finally getting to the point where I’m quite excited and happy with what I’ve got. So excited in fact that I’m totally going to invite you along with me on this nerdy journey…

Since I began playing Minecraft, I’ve always been most intrigued by the concept of building a massive city – a metropolis, if you will. For the longest time, I couldn’t figure out what I was going to call it. I played with “ValerieVille“, “MommyLand” and a few others, but nothing was fitting right. Then, I just decided screw the name, I’m just going to start building the thing and then maybe a name will come to me that is suitable.

Construction began and The Boyfriend and I both worked hard trying to figure out redstone and minecart systems so that I could make a functionining train station in the center of my superflat world map and in creative mode. However, once we had completed the train tracks heading to the north, south, east and west, we realized that we had made a few errors and done a few things that needed to be cahnged to get them the way that I really wanted them. And it kept happening. I believe I’ve restarted this at least 3 times now.

But today, being incredibly inspired by all the Minecraft Tutorials I stayed up late watching last night, I jumped back on and began construction on my new mega city and now would like to show you some of the wickedness that is:

Valerieopolis Central Station

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The above images are some of the projects that I’m currently working on in my metropolis. Right in the center of the map is Valerieopolis Central Station, which will have trains leading out to the north, south, east and west and then diagonally (although not perfectly, because you can’t do that in Minecraft) out to the corners. Here’s a basic drawing of the whole concept:

Valerieopolis – Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition

The yellow lines mark what will be the minecart or train system and highways. The circles represent a transfer station, which I’m hoping to figure out how to do eventually. I’ve been watching some tutorials, but it’s taking a lot of time for me to get the hang of all this stuff. So far, the only thing that I’ve gotten to work successfully for me and it took me over 3 hours to figure out is the Fully Functioning Ticket Booth (seen in the slideshow above). This is the tutorial that I watched to figure it out, although as you see, my circuitry is a little different and I’m still having a hard time figuring out exactly how to make it work over and over again for me, instead of just once…

If you’d like to learn more about this map and what I’m hoping to do with it, I’ve started a Google Doc dedicated to ideas for my mega city. I’ve opened up the comments on the document and everything so that you can leave me any suggestions, advice or ideas if you’d really like to jump on this nerdy journey with me 😉 It’ll be an ever-changing, ever-growing, crazy list of things to do…

It seems like every single week, I’m listening to a new style of music. It starts with one band, and then some searching and then next thing you know, I’ve got an entirely huge playlist to listen to of a completely new genre. First of all, I’ve been incredibly obsessed with fun. a lot. I’ve been listening to it, trying to learn some stuff on keyboards and just becoming generally obsessed. I just love the sound of it and the voice and the harmonies and everything about the music, just really gets my blood flowing.

So, the other night, I did some looking for Similar Artists on last.fm and I found a lot that I had already known about and a few, which I’m most impressed with, that I had never heard of before. It’s resulted in the same type of music playing over and over again for days now. I just can’t get enough of this indie/pop-punk/folk-y type of music. I don’t even know what to call it.

Let’s go through some of the stuff that’s absolutely topping my list right now:

Rivers and Roads
The Head and The Heart

All of the Drugs
The Brobecks

Lakes of Pontchartrain
The Be Good Tanyas

Girl U Want
Freelance Whales

Weeping Willow
The Hush Sound

One Foot
fun.

And when I haven’t been listening to the indie/pop-punk/folk-y type of music, I’ve been listening to nothing but dubstep. I don’t know what it is about dubstep that has me so in love with it. Maybe it’s because it’s a type of music that you can’t help but feel in every bone and every muscle and even the tiniest of ligaments. Maybe it’s because no matter how quiet you have your stereo, the bass throbs beneath your seat. Maybe it’s any number of things.

The kids even like dubstep, which I’m always surprised by, especially Kaeidyn – who normally chooses whatever is popular with the other kids at school. Like Katy Perry and Carly Rae Jepsen. But, I was smart and discovered a whole bunch of Transformers-esque songs, and now they’re all obsessed.

My Name is Skrillex
SkrillexThe kids absolutely love this song. They often replace the Skrillex with their own name or Optimus for Optimus Prime 😉

Optimus Prime
DaggaAgain, the kids love this one. They all scream “Transformers”, almost as soon as this song starts…

For Sex
Mt. EdenI don’t know if this is actually what any of these songs are called, but that’s what they are called on my Grooveshark playlist…

I so desperately want to upload videos to my YouTube channel, like terribly badly, but I seriously suck at this piano thing. Every single time I play, in the moment, I’m like “Oh yeah, this is my jam!” and then I listen back to it and it just sounds like utter crap!!

I sat in front of my computer for the last 2 1/2 hours, rocking out with my Casio. And I sucked…

I want to put something on YouTube for everyone and I just can’t bring myself to let anyone witness this crap. I even have a slight issue with The Boyfriend listening again, since I made him suffer the first time around…

And man oh man, how does he do it?!? I would be so annoyed by listening to all these songs slowed down and butchered and just tortured and beaten black and blue. I miss my freaking guitar!!!!!

See, the issue is that I’m too old to learn this stuff by myself now. And while I know that that’s a lie, if I really dedicated myself to it I could learn this freaking instrument, I just can’t bring myself to get any better. I’ve been practicing every once and awhile and every time I think I’m starting to get the hang of something, it just slaps me in the face every time I watch these videos.

I figured it wouldn’t sting so much if I waited a longer period in between when I played and when I watched the video, and it doesn’t. Simply, for an absolute matter of fact, I am just better with wind instruments like the bassoon and stringed instruments like the guitar and I’m pissed that I don’t have either of those things…

I miss my guitar…

P.S. If you didn’t know, the title to this post, “Musing” is an homage to my most beloved guitar, she was a beauty and the story behind her is a little romantic. You wanna hear it?

Okay, for those of you who stuck around.

The Boyfriend and I had been dating a few months when my birthday rolled around. He insisted that I get a babysitter on the day and told me we were going for a ride. He begins driving through the industrial area of town and I’m getting more and more confused as to where we’re going and why we’re in this part of town. He pulls up to a building and all I see is a sign about something to do with audio, that’s it.

As he pulls open the door, I am greeted by a wall of guitars. Electrics, acoustics, steel and my jaw drops. He puts his hand on my neck (like we did when we were out in public back then) and tells me, “Pick one” – total Cinderella moment. We spent hours there, me trying to find the perfect sound, him trying to act interested. When I picked up my Muse, I knew she was the one.

I can’t even remember what kind of guitar it was, except that it was an electric/acoustic. But she was beautiful and as soon as I got her home, I was writing songs. I wrote a good deal of songs on my Muse – of course, none of which I can remember. And then…

I did not take good enough care of her. If I knew then what I knew now, I would’ve created an untouchable shrine for her. Alas, I left her where the kids could touch her and slowly over time, she broke. It took me years to finally throw her in the garbage and I’m sure I cried the day that I did…

For most of yesterday and today, I’ve been sore and that means that I’ve been lazy. My neck is causing me a heck of a lot of problems and it’s resulted in me laying in bed a lot. Since I haven’t been in to watching movies or TV much, Netflix has barely gotten used but we’re watching tons of YouTube.

The other day, and I can’t believe I’ve never searched for this before, I decided to search for one of the instruments that I played back in high school. I wanted to see what was out there for bassoon music. I came across the most amazing bassoon quartet – The Breaking Winds and thought it would be nice to share one of my (now official) favorite videos on YouTube. Here’s The Breaking Winds doing a cover of Goyte’s Somebody That I Used to Know:

If you liked it as much as I did, let them know by leaving a comment or liking the video. Never heard the bassoon sound so beautiful and dramatic before! If you know of other great bassoon videos, leave me a comment below!

Today, I have felt like I’m on a roller coaster ride with my emotions. I’m all over the place. I wake up this morning and I’m all happy-go-lucky, then I watch some YouTube and for some reason, begin to get extremely agitated. The kids came home from school and at first I was all in love, then I was all annoyed and then, as dinner finished baking, I was sentimental and playful.

We watched Raising Hope on Netflix (which is such a cute show and I can’t believe I missed it when we still had cable…) and I flopped from not being able to hear it well enough one moment, to laughing or tearing up the next (depending on the situation in the show). The older kids went to bed, so immediately I felt relief and if a sigh didn’t actually escape my lips, it definitely had glided out of my body.

So I decided, what a perfect time to whip out the piano and play me some tuneage. But then, Carter came up behind me and started reaching around my arms to get at the keys. Instead of letting this consume me with bitterness, I succumbed to it and let him play with me. We experimented with the sounds, we played some stuff together and I even let him play alone. After a good 45 minutes had went by, I decided I was done. It was my turn to play.

We got him into bed, happily cradling his bottle, and I sat down in front of the keyboard again. As I struck the first note, The Boyfriend grabbed his Xbox mic, slid it onto his head and began, “Hey, how are you?”. See, he’s started playing Modern Warfare online with some of his buddies from work. It keeps him incredibly entertained and if it didn’t make him feel so guilty always playing video games, I’d never see him again.

I’m used to this kind of behavior. Every boyfriend I’ve ever had would rather spend all his spare time playing video games or watching movies that I sincerely hate. The Boyfriend is the worst for this! His only hobby is his video games (oh, and sort of Nascar… That one’s way less annoying though!), so whenever he can he likes to get on there and now that he’s got friends who play, he insists on putting this mic on.

When I’m not playing piano, I think it’s cute. It doesn’t bother me since I’m not making any other noises than typing when he’s playing his games. I’m okay with his nerdy social life. So my emotions went crazy during the first few minutes of this. First I was just outright annoyed, then I was “okay” with it because I had decided that I was just going to suck at piano anyways, so what was the point. I went out to the kitchen and got myself a drink and refilled Carter’s bottle and decided that I was just going to play piano. Whatever if I sucked, whatever about The Boyfriend’s mic. It doesn’t affect his time on it when I’m playing and I’ve done it before so what’s the difference.

I sit in front of my keyboards all ready to conquer that stuff, and look up at the screen and just feel completely bored! Needless to say, I haven’t played piano, I’m moodier than I like to be, I’m missing a guitar like crazy and I want to work on my website but I feel to moody! ARGH!!!

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